Cinema-goers at a midnight screening of the new film in the Denver suburb of Aurora were stunned when a masked gunman entered the theatre and hurled a gas canister into the audience before opening fire.

Twelve people were killed and 59 others injured in the shooting rampage.

The suspect, 24-year-old former Colorado university medical student James Eagan Holmes, was taken into custody by police in a parking lot behind the cinema.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nolan, who cancelled the French premiere of The Dark Knight Rises and a media junket in Paris hours after the shootings, said the killings violated the "innocent" place he calls his "home," the cinema.

"Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew... I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community," he said, referring to the town where the massacre occurred.

"I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie."

British-American Nolan is director of the Batman trilogy that started with Batman Begins in 2005 and continued with The Dark Knight in 2008.

He also wrote and directed 2010 thriller Inception, which won four Oscars and was nominated for four others.

He was also nominated for best screenplay Oscar in 2002 for Memento.

"I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime," Nolan said.

"The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me.

"Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families."